Four pages at a time
A sheet of paper folded once gives two leaves and four printed pages, which is why a saddle-stitched booklet can only ever have a page count divisible by four. Fifty-eight pages of content becomes sixty, with two blanks at the back and fifteen folded sheets per copy. Fifty-nine would also become sixty; sixty-one jumps to sixty-four and adds three more blank pages plus a whole extra sheet of paper on every copy in the run.
Coil and wire-o binding is the exception. The leaves are separate and punched, so the count goes up in twos rather than fours. Fifty-nine pages becomes 60 either way, but 61 becomes 62 rather than 64, which on a long run is a sheet of paper a copy.
Signatures make the steps bigger
A perfect bound book is not folded as one nest. It is gathered from signatures — sections of 8, 16 or 32 pages folded from a single larger sheet — and the number of pages has to divide into those. Sixty pages against a 16-page signature is three full sections and twelve pages left over. If the binder will run short sections you get 16 + 16 + 16 + 8 + 4 and land on 60 exactly, two blanks. If every section has to be full, you go to 64 and carry six blanks.
That is worth asking about before the layout is locked, because the answer changes what a page of content costs. One page over a signature boundary drags in a whole section: 65 pages of content in a full-signature book becomes 80 pages printed.
What the blanks actually cost
Blank pages are bought, run through the press, folded, gathered and trimmed exactly like printed ones. On the default job — 58 pages of content, saddle stitched, 500 copies with 4 percent bindery spoilage — that is 520 copies at 15 folded sheets each, 7,800 sheets of text stock, and two of every sixty pages carrying nothing. At 4.8 cents a sheet the text paper is 374 dollars and roughly 12 of those dollars are blank, before the 520 cover sheets are added.
The interesting version of that sum is the other direction. Adding two pages of content costs nothing at all here, because they fit in the blanks that already exist. Editors who know this write to fill the sheet.
Covers are counted separately
A plus cover is four extra pages on different stock — a separate sheet, folded once, wrapped round the outside. It sits outside the interior count, which is why the page reports the two separately. A self-cover uses the same paper throughout and the cover is simply the first and last four pages of the count, which is cheaper and looks it.
Where the difference bites is on a stitched booklet: a plus cover on heavy stock adds its own thickness to the fold and pushes the inner pages further out, which is a creep problem rather than a page count problem, and belongs on the creep page instead.
Questions people ask
Why does a booklet have to be a multiple of four pages?
Because it is made from folded sheets. One sheet folded in half gives two leaves, and each leaf has two sides, so every sheet you add brings four pages with it. There is no way round it except tipping in a single leaf by hand, which binders will do and charge for. Coil and wire-o binding uses separate punched leaves, so those go up in twos.
How many sheets are in a 60-page booklet?
Fifteen, if it is saddle stitched and self-covered — 60 divided by four pages a sheet. With a plus cover on different stock it is fourteen text sheets and one cover sheet, because the cover carries four of the pages. For a run of 500 with 4 percent spoilage that is 7,800 text sheets and 520 cover sheets.
What is a signature in book printing?
A section of pages printed on one large sheet and folded down — most often 16 pages, sometimes 8 or 32 depending on the sheet size and the folder. A perfect bound book is gathered from these, so the page count has to be built from the signature sizes the binder actually runs. It is a property of their equipment rather than something you can choose freely.
Can I avoid blank pages at the end?
Sometimes. On a stitched booklet the only lever is the content — write or cut to land on a multiple of four. On a gathered book, ask whether the binder will run a short signature: mixing an 8 or a 4 into a book of 16s can cut six blanks down to two. It costs a separate fold and a separate gathering pass, so it is a question of price rather than possibility.
Do blank pages cost money?
Yes, the same as any other page. They are bought as paper, folded, gathered, trimmed and bound. On a 60-page booklet with two blanks that is 3.3 percent of the text stock carrying nothing, which on 500 copies at 4.8 cents a sheet is about 12 dollars. The cheaper edit is usually adding content to fill them rather than trying to remove them.